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From the same session:
Good afternoon and greetings from the land of lakes!
I’d like to welcome you all to this edition of Sustainability in Minnesota. Brought to you by the fine citizens of Lake Wobegon, with financial support from the National Ketchup Board and Powdermilk biscuits. . .goodness knows they’re tasty and expeditious.
My name is Rolf Nordstrom and I will be your moderator for the next 75 minutes.
Before we begin, may I ask who’s out there? How many of you are planners at a state or regional level? How many from local government (city, county or town)? How many from the private sector?
Our hope for the next hour or so is to share how the concept of sustainability is changing things in Minnesota.
Conventional wisdom has said that communities must trade environmental quality for economic growth. The trick to prosperity has been seen as one of balancing these two objectives. But we are slowly realizing that thinking only in terms of balance is like dying by inches.
In sharp contrast, the goal of sustainable development is not to balance environmentally damaging activities with just the right amount of environmental protection, but instead to move toward technologies, development patterns and daily practices that are, by their nature and design, profitable, ecologically intelligent and socially just.
This paradigm shift has begun to emerge at all scales in Minnesota, as our three speakers will soon attest.
But Minnesota is not alone. States as diverse as California, Florida, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, New Jersey, New York and Oregon are all pursuing sustainability on one or more fronts. For some the focus is land use and smarter growth policies. For others it is greening state government operations and public buildings.
Against this backdrop of momentum among the states, it is our great pleasure and privilege to share some highlights from Minnesota’s journey toward sustainability.
You will hear first from my friend and colleague of the last 8 years, John Wells. He is Director of Minnesota’s Sustainable Development Initiative and will describe how the state’s framework for sustainable development has emerged.
Next will come Jean Coleman, principal with BIKO and Associates, a sustainable development consulting firm. Jean has three stories to tell that show how efforts at the state level have translated into changes on the ground, often in hostile territory!
Finally, you will hear about sustainable development in the big city from Michael Orange, planner for Minneapolis. He will share how his fair city is tackling climate change and creating more enjoyable urban spaces. . .all while managing an extraordinary boom in downtown development.
So, without further ado, please give a warm Cajun welcome to Mr. John Wells.
Rolf Nordstrom’s Closing Remarks
Before we go to questions and answers I just wanted to offer some observations that we have made about what has been going on in Minnesota during the past 8 years. There seem to be a handful of lessons, or characteristics of successful sustainable development efforts, that apply regardless of geographic scale:
- Think long term. If you are not thinking intergenerational you’re probably not thinking long-term enough. What is the logical extension of the development path you are on? What will things look like, be like 50 years from now if they continue as they are?
- Think in cycles & systems. In a "throw-away" culture that mostly takes resources from the physical world, makes things and then promptly throws them away, we have become accustomed to thinking in a linear fashion. As businessman and author Paul Hawken puts it, we’ve constructed a linear "Take, Make, Waste" system. We have too often extended this "disposable" attitude to neighborhoods and whole communities. Instead we should be thinking about what the next life will be for all our resources. How can those resources become useful again either to us or to nature. Thinking in systems simply means looking for the economic, environmental and social dimensions of every issue. Through this lens, affordable housing is not only a social issue about shelter, but also a building block for economic development and an environmental issue in the way those structures are located, oriented on the site, designed, built and operated. Making housing more durable, more energy and resource efficient and less toxic supports the goal of affordability in the long run because these buildings are cheaper to operate and maintain. Thinking in systems also means thinking across geographic and political boundaries. How does your community’s actions affect the quality of life elsewhere?
- Provide a process for developing a common language and understanding. Our society has very few forums through which people with different backgrounds and different worldviews can come together in the absence of any specific development proposal or crisis. People need a safe and respectful environment within which to talk about their shared future. Such forums not only create a constituency of support for the actions of local government, but are one of the best ways to ensure that the community is not optimizing one aspect (economic, environmental or social) at the expense of the others. Public hearings are awful for this. They are way too late in the process and almost designed to be contentious.
- Include people who disagree. People who disagree need to find out why, and then find out where they do agree and build from there. Our experience has been that if people think far enough out (at least 50 years), they actually agree on more than they differ. Then, the discussion can revolve around means instead of ends, and that’s where some surprising and innovative solutions can often bubble to the surface.
- Develop attractive alternatives. It is not enough to simply say "no" to people. "Don’t live this way; don’t buy that product." Whether it is hybrid cars that emit less pollution or new sorts of community designs and subdivisions, people must be able to envision something better than the current offerings.
- Align economic and policy signals with sustainable behavior. Since cost and/or price is one of the single most important pieces of information people get, aligning economic and policy signals with your community’s sustainable development goals is absolutely critical. This means everything from tax policy that rewards people for reinvesting in their homes to zoning and subdivision regulations that are flexible enough to allow innovation and response to market demands.
- Shoot for "inherently sustainable" rather than "balance". Balance is a nice concept in many ways and something people strive for in their lives and communities. But balance also suggests trade-offs, a zero-sum game, and a teeter-totter proposition in which people cannot have their cake and eat it too. This has lead to the familiar -- and false -- "jobs vs. environment" debate. Balance is necessary in some cases. For example, you will either develop a piece of land or you won’t. But focusing only on balance is like dying by inches. If the goal is always to balance growth with just the right dose of environmental protection indefinitely, how much of each will a community have in the end? How much of each is the sustainable amount? Balance by itself says we will try to be "less bad" rather than shooting for excellence. It is not sustainable. Communities could usefully borrow a page from industry here. That sector has goals like "zero defects", "total quality" and more recently "zero waste." Shooting for activities at the local level that are inherently sustainable, economically, environmentally and socially, is a similar sort of goal.
Finally, we’d like to thank everyone for joining us this afternoon. We would welcome any questions you may have.
Author and Copyright Information
Copyright 2001 by Author
Rolf Nordstrom
Sustainable Development Specialist
Critical Issues Research
Minnesota Office of Strategic and Long-range Planning
658 Cedar Street, Suite 300
St. Paul, MN 55155
651-297-5228 ph / 651-296-3698 fax
rolf.nordstrom@state.mn.us
www.mnplan.state.mn.us
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